First, I will share an article I received from the Ulysses Club Road Safety Committee today:
"A rider’s fundamental needs.
As riders, there are lots of things we need to keep us safe: knowledge of roadcraft, riding skills, and the right attitude. A critical fundamental need that cuts across knowledge, skills, and attitude is the ability to maintain a safe amount of space in front of our bikes.
Safe following distance
Recently there has been discussions in the Club about the differences between the recommended safe following distance across jurisdictions. There are valid reasons as to why each state varies and these come down to the three key factors that determine what a safe distance is.
The key factors are:
• Reaction time,
• Braking distance, and
• Situation.
Reaction time
Across the world there is a massive difference in the time allocated for a person to respond to an event, some jurisdictions allow half a second for a driver to scan, identify, perceive and respond to a braking situation. The idea of a half second reaction time comes from experiments conducted in the 1960’s where drivers were instructed to brake when a horn was sounded in the vehicle. The time between the sounding of the horn and the application of the brake was deemed the reaction time. These experiments were flawed in three ways- the driver was a trained professional, they were mentally ready, and it was an auditory stimulus (quicker to react to compared to a visual cue).
A Monash University study in 1982, ‘Reaction time of drivers to road stimuli’ by Thomas Triggs and Walter Harris, showed that real world reaction times were in fact significantly higher, with the 85th percentile reaction time for car following recorded as 1.26 seconds.
While this reaction time is based on brake lights appearing, in situations that require drivers to perceive hazards the reaction takes longer – with the 85th percentile reaction time to a parked Police vehicle being 2.8 seconds.
Previous versions of the Austroads’ ‘Guide to Road Safety Part 3 – Safe Speed’, have used a sliding scale from 1.5 to 2.5 seconds for reaction time from 40km/h to 100km/h, however in the 2024 edition, reaction time for breaking calculations has been averaged at 2 seconds. A 2 second reaction time equates to 33.3m travelled at 60km/h, 44.4m at 80km/h, and 55.6m at 100km/h. This reaction time travel distance is purely cognitive processing and is before any braking occurs.
Braking distance
We all know braking is affected by many factors, including; vehicle weight, surface quality, tyre grip, gradient, camber, and braking force but by far the most critical factors are operator skills and speed.
In a perfect world (e.g. a well-maintained vehicle, operated by an expert and braking on a flat, dry, sealed surface) cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles can achieve a 1g stop. However, controlling a motorcycle under hard braking requires high-level skill, balance, and confidence.
New riders are generally capable of a 0.5g stop, experienced riders may be able to achieve a 0.7g stop but only a handful of expert riders can do a 1g emergency stop. By contrast, a car driver with basic skills and a modern vehicle can just bury their foot to the floor, let technology take over and achieve a 1g stop.
What this means for us in the real-world is that most drivers can stop their cars in a significantly shorter distance than most motorcyclists can stop their bikes. As motorcyclists, we must accept the fact that in most situations, cars will out brake us.
Speed is the other critical factor- a small increase in speed results in a big increase in braking distance. Simple physics mean that when speed is doubled, the stopping distance is squared.
We can use this fact to our advantage- easing off the throttle when we first see a hazard can dramatically reduce our braking needs.
Situation
When we think about following distance, we tend to think about the situation where we see the traffic ahead slowing and brake lights coming on. However, not every situation is this predictable- if the driver in front is distracted and runs into the car in front, we may not see brake lights.
Even worse, what if an oncoming car drifts onto our side of the road and has a head-on collision with the car we are following, totally blocking the road ahead. In a situation where the road ahead is blocked, a two second following distance will NOT be enough, in fact, we might not even have time to start braking.
Riding is dynamic and we need to adapt our riding as the situation changes. In slower, less complex environments we may be able to get away with smaller following distances such as a two second gap, but in faster more complex situations we will need three seconds or more.
Summary
Safe following can be summarised in three simple facts
1 humans need time to react
2 cars will generally stop quicker than motorcycles, and
3 cars can stop instantly if they hit something.
Putting into practice
To estimate a safe following distance, wait until the vehicle in front passes a fixed point on the road- say a shadow, line or pothole, then start counting, 1001, 1002, 1003. If your front wheel reaches the fix point as you finish saying 1003, then you have a 3-second gap, if not drop back and try counting again.
Ulysses Club Road Safety Committee
Dave, Shaun, Terry, Jen, Grant, Duncan and Brian"
Secondly, I will share a link to an article by the RACV regarding older road users
Yes, it is addressed to “drivers”, but I also believe it’s addressed to us “senior” riders
Apologies if I sound like a wet blanket, but I believe that to best enjoy ourselves, it is important to start every road trip with the aim of arriving home with ourselves, our licences and our bikes intact.
Monitor your health and don’t ignore the benefits of additional training.
Enjoy the ride. Courtesy, patience and roadcraft go a long way.
John Cook